Daily Current Affairs for Competitive Exams – 14 March 2018

The Indian Air Force’s largest transport aircraft, the C-17 Globemaster, on Tuesday landed at Arunachal Pradesh’s Tuting airfield which is close to the Chinese border.

The landing of the US-manufactured aircraft is seen as part of the Indian Air Force’s move to strengthen its overall operations in the strategically-key border state.

“The C17 Globemaster of IAF carried out a historic landing at Tuting ALG, Arunachal Pradesh, today. The challenging airfield is in midst of high hills in a narrow valley. The mission was executed flawlessly owing to its superlative performance and excellent flying skills of pilots,” the IAF tweeted.

2. President of India inaugurates world Hindi secretariat in Mauritius.

The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, inaugurated the World Hindi Secretariat building on March 13, 2018 on the third day of his visit to Mauritius.

He also launched the World Hindi Secretariat’s logo and a large ENT hospital being built with Indian assistance.

The President noted that the 11th World Hindi Conference is going to be held in Mauritius in August 2018.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) on Tuesday said it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the National Aviation University to enhance human resource availability in India’s aviation industry.

The three parties to the MoU “formalised this partnership in the presence of Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha on the sidelines of Wings India 2018 in Hyderabad”, IATA said in a statement.

4. Tata Motors and IOC commence trials of India’s first hydrogen bus.

Tata Motors and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) have begun the country’s first demonstration trials for a hydrogen fuel cell bus.

The demonstration event was held in the presence of Dr R Chidambaram, principal scientific adviser to the government of India and the chairman and board members of Indian Oil.

The project is being executed under partial financial support from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) and Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).

India was ranked at 133 in the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network’s (SDSN) 2018 World Happiness Report which ranked 156 countries according to things such as GDP per capita, social support, healthy life expectancy, social freedom, generosity and absence of corruption.

World Happiness Index 2018 – Top 10 Countries:

Finland

Norway

Denmark

Iceland

Switzerland

Netherlands

Canada

New Zealand

Sweden

Australia

6. World Bank projects India’s FY19 GDP growth at 7.3 pc.

As per World Bank’s biannual publication, India Development Update: India’s Growth Story, India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for next financial year i.e. FY 2018-19 is projected at 7.3 per cent.

World Bank has outlined that Indian economy is likely to recover from the impact of demonetisation in November 2016 and roll out of Goods and Services Tax (GST) July 2017 and will accelerate further to 7.5 per cent in 2019-20.

For the current financial year ending March 31, 2018, Indian economy’s growth rate is expected to be 6.7 per cent.

7. Home Minister to inaugurate International Police Conference on Cybercrime & Terrorism.

The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh will inaugurate the two-day Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) here tomorrow. The theme is “Challenges to Policing in 2020- How is Cyber Space shaping our approach to Cybercrime & Terrorism, how do we perform within it and take advantage of it”.

The regional conference is being organised by the Asia-Pacific World Regional Office (APWRO) of the IACP in partnership with the Intelligence Bureau. The Director, Intelligence Bureau, as the Chair of APWRO, is the host of the Conference.

The phenomenal growth and influence of Cyber space and Cyber technology have opened new challenges in the field of policing in recent times.

In view of the alleged Rs 12,700-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, done through fraudulent issuance of Letter of Understanding (LoUs) by connivance of the bank’s staff, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has discontinued issuance of LoUs by banks for trade credits for imports into India.

The RBI notification further said that Letters of Credit and Bank Guarantees for trade credits for imports into India may continue to be issued subject to compliance with the provisions.

9. Bidya Devi Bhandari re-elected President of Nepal for second term On 13 March 2018, Bidya Devi Bhandari was re-elected for a second term as President of Nepal.

Bidya Devi Bhandari became the first woman president of Nepal in 2015. She is 56 years old.

Alliance: Bidya Devi Bhandari was supported by the alliance of CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre), the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal etc.

10. British scientist Stephen Hawking passes away at 76 On 14 March 2018, renowned British Scientist Stephen Hawking passed away at his residence in Cambridge, England.

Stephen Hawking was 76 years old. He was well known for his work on black holes and relativity.

He had also written several science books such as A Brief History of Time. He was diagnosed with a rare form of motor neurone disease when he was 22 years old.

The disease left him paralyzed and he started dwelling on a wheelchair. He lost his ability to speak and started communicating through a voice synthesiser. iv. He discovered that, black holes leak energy and fade to nothing. This phenomenon is referred to as Hawking radiation.

11. Gina Haspel to become CIA’s first woman chief.

U.S. President Donald Trump has chosen Gina Haspel for the position of CIA Director. She will replace Mike Pompeo.

Ms. Haspel, the agency’s current Deputy Director, will become its first woman chief.

She is a career spymaster who once ran an agency prison in Thailand.

12. Dr Rajan Sankaranarayanan wins 27th GD Birla Award.

The 27th G D Birla Award for Scientific Research for year 2017 has been given to Dr Rajan Sankaranarayanan.

Using X-ray crystallography and biochemical approaches, his laboratory has identified how chiral checkpoints ensure that D-chiral amino acids are excluded from the translation machinery.

13. Actor Narendra Jha passed away On 14 March 2018.

Bollywood actor Narendra Jha died due to a massive heart attack at his farmhouse in Maharashtra.

Narendra Jha was 55 years old. He was born in Madhubani, Bihar.

He started his career with the television industry. He has acted in several Bollywood films.

Some of his popular works are: Haider, Kaabil, Mohenjo Daro, Ghayal Once Again, Raees, etc